In fact, the paper noted, the playbook dates back to 1983, when Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass., said he had an affair with a 17-year-old congressional page — an admission that, in ordinary circumstances, would have been a career-ender for just about any politician.
Except for Studds, that is.
He told everyone that he was gay, which made him the first congressman to do so, then argued that he was being targeted for scrutiny because he was homosexual. And apparently, his Left-wing voters agreed because he was reelected six more times. Also, someone decided to name a marine sanctuary after him in 1996.
The die had been cast.
Other politicians who “came out” only after they were embroiled in scandal include New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, also a Democrat, who told reporters during a 2004 press conference, “I am a gay American” after a former lover accused him of sexual harassment.
Two years later, it was a Republican’s turn to play the ‘gay card.’ Rep. Mark Foley of Florida said he was gay after he was caught sexting explicit messages to teen pages.
Wanda Sykes, a comedian, has come up with a term for it after Spacey’s ‘admission.’ She accused him of attempting to hide “under the rainbow” by ‘coming out’ in order to misdirect attention away from his sexual assault accusation that was made by actor Anthony Rapp.
“No no no no! You do not get to ‘choose’ to hide under the rainbow!” Sykes said Sunday in a tweet.
Rapp, 46, has accused Spacey of picking him up and lying on top of him at his apartment in Manhattan when he allegedly attempted to seduce him following a party in 1986. At the time Rapp was 14 years old; Spacey was around 26.
On Monday Spacey, 58, a two-time Oscar winner, said in a statement he had no recollection of the incident but nevertheless owed him “the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.”
Continuing, he said, “I choose now to live as a gay man.” (Related: Hollywood has become nothing more than a hate-filled, abortion-promoting, deviant cabal of filth and lunacy.)
That ‘admission’ set off a storm of criticism from gay celebrities and others like Zachary Quinto, who said Spacey’s claim was a “calculated manipulation to deflect attention from the very serious accusation that he attempted to molest [a child].”
“Coming-out stories should not be used to deflect from allegations of sexual assault,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the gay media group GLAAD, the Times reported. “This is not a coming-out story about Kevin Spacey, but a story of survivorship by Anthony Rapp and all those who bravely speak out against unwanted sexual advances. The media and public should not gloss over that.”
Added actor and comedian Billy Eichner: “Kevin Spacey has just invented something that never existed before: a bad time to come out.”
That wasn’t the only criticism from the entertainment and media world.
Hitting Spacey for conflating homosexuality and pedophilia in a blanket statement, Owen Jones, a columnist for the UK Guardian newspaper, called that a “vicious lie” about gay men.
“Usually when celebrities come out we’re quick to send on our congratulations and to talk about the importance of role models. But for Kevin Spacey to choose this particular moment to come out is harmful to the LGBT community,” the British gay rights group Stonewall said.
“His sexual orientation bears no relevance to the serious allegations he is facing, and to conflate these things is extremely damaging,” said Stonewall.
J.D. Heyes is the editor-in-chief of The National Sentinel and a senior writer for NewsTarget.com.
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